Great in counsel and mighty in deed: Good News Translation has “You make wise plans and do mighty things” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “great are your plans and powerful your deeds.” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible renders “Excellent counselor and great doer” and Revised English Bible “great in purpose and mighty in action.” Again, Good News Translation makes this passage more readable by beginning the verse with a new sentence.

Whose eyes are open to all the ways of men: Good News Translation has “you see everything that people do.”

Men and man represent two different words in Hebrew, the first one being ʾadam (often used of “mankind”). It may be possible to retain two terms; for example, “people” and “each person.” Although Hebrew (and many English translations) retains masculine references throughout this verse, the meaning is people in general, and inclusive language such as “people” or “person” should be used whenever possible.

Rewarding every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings: Whereas rewarding is normally positive in English, in Hebrew the meaning is more neutral; see, for example, “repay” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) and “giving” (New American Bible). According to the fruit of his doings may be taken as the equivalent of according to his ways, as in Good News Translation, which combines the two expressions and translates “and you reward them according to their actions”; or the two phrases may be understood as “as his ways and the results of his actions deserve” (Jerusalem Bible) or “as that person’s ways and actions deserve” (New Jerusalem Bible).

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .